Saw Zero Dark Thirty and Argo last week, liked them both but that pretty much it although I was suprised how well acted Zero Dark Thirty was. Yesterday I watched Cléo from 5 to 7 by Agnès Varda, it's a fantastic movie and it's been a long time since I've seen a movie this well shot.

Sat Mar 02, 2013 7:53 am

NeuroA champion of Kurtis SP

Joined: 19 Jul 2002
Posts: 7837

i thought argo was good, i also watched a little docu on the true events, pretty interesting

Sat Mar 02, 2013 11:53 am

Szechwan

Joined: 19 Mar 2007
Posts: 587
Location: Vancouver Island

Neuro wrote: i thought argo was good, i also watched a little docu on the true events, pretty interesting

rabblerabblerabble Canadian rage

Sat Mar 02, 2013 11:45 pm

Captiv8

Joined: 25 Aug 2006
Posts: 8546
Location: Third Coast

Dredd was better than the Stallone version, but only marginally. Don't get me wrong: the special effects were tremendous and creative, which I greatly appreciated. I also liked Urban's take on Dredd. Even Olivia Thirlby was the right blend of innocence and adaptive. But the plot was just stale, rounded off with a total anti-climax. Frankly, I don't know how they spent $50 million to make this movie, given that it takes place almost entirely in a huge apartment tower that was obviously built on a soundstage. The special effects were probably the biggest expense, but they don't dominate the movie. I don't know. It was decent, but it barely held my attention.

Killing Them Softly was good, not great. At some point it just seemed like the writer was trying to hard to Tarantino the fuck out of the dialogue. Pitt was good, but Gandolfini was better. That said, the latter seemed to really just be a deus ex machina to propel the whole thing forward. In the end I felt like everything that I expected to happen happened. Sometimes being straightforward is a good thing, but not when it leads to dullness. Get it fucking together.

I need to see a really high quality film soon. I'm losing faith.

Edit: Cloud Atlas was excellent, one of the best movies I've seen in a while. I felt engaged for the full three hours, I thought it was easy enough to follow, and I loved the premise. Hanks was solid, but I thought the best performances went to Halle Berry and Jim Sturgess. Frankly, I'm surprised this movie wasn't nominated for at least best adaptation and costumes. Also, the whole yellowface thing? Not racist in the context of the movie, in which multiple actors, male and female, play different genders, races, and ages across time. Halle Berry was a British Jew and Hugo Weaving an iron-fisted female nurse. Oh, and not one but two Asian women played white women at different points. I'm getting more and more misanthropic because of bullshit like this.

Mon Mar 04, 2013 3:54 pm

NeuroA champion of Kurtis SP

Joined: 19 Jul 2002
Posts: 7837

i watched Flight

it was pretty intense

Excellent flick

john goodman is the man

Mon Mar 04, 2013 11:53 pm

Captiv8

Joined: 25 Aug 2006
Posts: 8546
Location: Third Coast

So... Snowtown. My God. It feels weird saying it, but this was an excellent film. It was beautifully shot, and incredibly well-acted. The guy that plays John Bunting portrated psychopathy with eerie skill, and the actor that plays Jaimie didn't even seem to be acting at times. I've never seen an actor cry so many times in a movie and have it be totally believable each time. In terms of subject matter and controversy, I get why this didn't sit well with a lot of people. There were some truly disturbing and grotesque scenes. That said, I didn't take their visual presence to be for shock value. They were just ultra visceral and uncomprimising, and also really uncomfortable. To be able to convey that in a movie, to be able to elicit a genuine emotional response other than happiness or sadness, is a real challenge that Snowtown conquered. I wouldn't watch this again, but it's worth seeing at least once. Brilliant minimalistic soundtrack as well.

Wed Mar 06, 2013 7:43 pm

ROTTY

Joined: 28 Apr 2005
Posts: 1407
Location: London

Captiv8 wrote: So... Snowtown. My God. It feels weird saying it, but this was an excellent film. It was beautifully shot, and incredibly well-acted. The guy that plays John Bunting portrated psychopathy with eerie skill, and the actor that plays Jaimie didn't even seem to be acting at times. I've never seen an actor cry so many times in a movie and have it be totally believable each time. In terms of subject matter and controversy, I get why this didn't sit well with a lot of people. There were some truly disturbing and grotesque scenes. That said, I didn't take their visual presence to be for shock value. They were just ultra visceral and uncomprimising, and also really uncomfortable. To be able to convey that in a movie, to be able to elicit a genuine emotional response other than happiness or sadness, is a real challenge that Snowtown conquered. I wouldn't watch this again, but it's worth seeing at least once. Brilliant minimalistic soundtrack as well.

I really enjoyed snowtown. Although I am trying to find another word other than enjoy but anyone who has seen it will understand what I mean.
It was bleak but brilliantly well made but the grip the film has on you feels very uncomfortable.

I believe that all the other actors other than John Bunting had never acted before and were all from the local area where the murders took place.

Thu Mar 07, 2013 6:53 am

Captiv8

Joined: 25 Aug 2006
Posts: 8546
Location: Third Coast

ROTTY wrote:

Captiv8 wrote: So... Snowtown. My God. It feels weird saying it, but this was an excellent film. It was beautifully shot, and incredibly well-acted. The guy that plays John Bunting portrated psychopathy with eerie skill, and the actor that plays Jaimie didn't even seem to be acting at times. I've never seen an actor cry so many times in a movie and have it be totally believable each time. In terms of subject matter and controversy, I get why this didn't sit well with a lot of people. There were some truly disturbing and grotesque scenes. That said, I didn't take their visual presence to be for shock value. They were just ultra visceral and uncomprimising, and also really uncomfortable. To be able to convey that in a movie, to be able to elicit a genuine emotional response other than happiness or sadness, is a real challenge that Snowtown conquered. I wouldn't watch this again, but it's worth seeing at least once. Brilliant minimalistic soundtrack as well.

I really enjoyed snowtown. Although I am trying to find another word other than enjoy but anyone who has seen it will understand what I mean.
It was bleak but brilliantly well made but the grip the film has on you feels very uncomfortable.

I believe that all the other actors other than John Bunting had never acted before and were all from the local area where the murders took place.

Ya, "enjoy" definitely doesn't quite fit, and I know exactly what you mean. Maybe "appreciate" is more apt. At any rate, this was a staggering and really sobering movie. And it lingers with you, absolutely. Again, that is, in my opinion, one of the surest signs of great film-making.

Thu Mar 07, 2013 7:43 am

tommi teardrop

Joined: 12 Apr 2007
Posts: 2217
Location: Las Vegas

I saw Flight and Argo. Flight has the most cliche music of all time, but the crash scene is unbelievable. I'm not really into act of god shit though.

Argo was really well made and all, but it didn't feel like the best film of the year. It's just one of those movies that is really well paced and watchable, like Almost Famous or Training Day. The scene with the Iranians storming the embassy was great though.

Thu Mar 07, 2013 12:23 pm

mancabbage

Joined: 29 Jun 2005
Posts: 9267
Location: london

argo winning really surprised me, then i realised the entire plot is "hollywood saves american lives.. and its true!!!" and it made sense

Fri Mar 08, 2013 8:06 pm

ROTTY

Joined: 28 Apr 2005
Posts: 1407
Location: London

I really enjoyed Argo. They made a remarkable and tough story very accessible and if it was made by anyone else i think it would have been stretched out and tried to be to clever.

It had great humour and one of the most intense endings in while. Alan Arkin and John Goodman was great casting.

Sat Mar 09, 2013 3:17 pm

Limbs

Joined: 04 Feb 2011
Posts: 954

I want to see Argo. I think Affleck is a solid filmmaker. I've enjoyed all the movies he's directed and none of them seemed my cup of tea going in.

Sat Mar 09, 2013 5:04 pm

Captiv8

Joined: 25 Aug 2006
Posts: 8546
Location: Third Coast

What's so strange, to me anyway, about Ben Affleck is that he started off his career really strongly by co-writing Good Will Hunting. But then he embarked on a bunch of typical gone-to-your-head type of movies that were mediocre (Reindeer Games) to not douchy and actually funny (Dogma) to awful (Gigli). They man has run the full gamut in terms of film quality. I had more or less written him off by 2004, with the bargain bin bilge of Surviving Christmas and Jersey Girl. But then Affleck showed he wasn't an idiot after all; he was simply paying attention and jotting down notes. Gone Baby Gone was a really well-written and directed film, The Town, while not as good as it could have been, showed grit and diversity, and Argo, from most accounts, has been something of a piece de resistance.

Also, while the movie hovers right around luke warm, Affleck is excellent in Hollywoodland.

Sat Mar 09, 2013 6:37 pm

Brynjar

Joined: 12 Dec 2006
Posts: 1476
Location: Rivertown

I would've loved if Michael Parks played the Alan Arkin part in Argo and not a 5 sec role as Jack Kirby. After seeing him in Red State I find it amazing he's not getting major supporting roles in big movies.

Sun Mar 10, 2013 7:11 am

Captiv8

Joined: 25 Aug 2006
Posts: 8546
Location: Third Coast

I rewatched The Talented Mr. Ripley last night and was blown away by how good it actually is. I remember seeing it in the theater when it first came out in 1999, but it's clear now that my teenage self was not prepared to process all of the movie's themes. First off, Matt Damon gives a stellar performance as Tom Ripley. He is at turns vulnerable, charming, obsessive, innocent, psychotic, depressed, and deranged. Sometimes he's so likeable that you actually root for him, and others you want him just to get caught so he can get his just desserts. I also, for some reason, totally forgot about the gay undertones of Ripley. But seeing it know, I can't be sure if he's actually gay or if he will just accept anyone that loves him. Intriguing. And everything in the movie seemed plausible up until the second to last scene. I won't be ruin it, but I can't see him getting away with that. Obviously he does though, since there are several other books and movies about Tom Ripley. Great stuff.